A Marysville aerospace company will produce installation kits for the Boeing Co.’s new in-flight Internet service on 737 jets.
The announcement that Flight Structures Inc. had been picked for the work came Wednesday, the same day that its parent company announced it had increased its sales and narrowed its losses in the first quarter.
Flight Structures will design, certify and manufacture the kits for 737s being retrofitted with Connexion by Boeing Internet service.
Boeing will install the new service on Lufthansa planes soon. All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines System have definitive agreements to add the service to their long-range jets. British Airways, China Airlines and Singapore Airlines have announced they intend to add them to their long-range fleets.
But so far, Boeing has not found customers who want the service on smaller, shorter-range, single-aisle jets like the 737.
Hiring Flight Structures for the Connexion program will help speed the certification and introduction of the service on 737s, said Beverly Wyse, Connexion’s director of deployment and installation. Flight Structures has "a particularly strong record of performance and experience in the integration and certification arena," she said.
The Flight Structures deal "positions us well to address other types of aircraft on which our customers may wish to have in-flight connectivity," said Sherry Nebel, vice president of communications for Connexion.
The contract was a "very important customer win" for Flight Structures’ parent company, B/E Aerospace, the company said.
On Wednesday, Florida-based B/E Aerospace announced a net loss of $7.6 million for the first quarter of the year, which was an improvement over its performance in the same period in 2003, when it lost $9.8 million.
On a per-share basis, B/E reported a loss of 21 cents, compared with 31 cents in the first quarter last year.
B/E reported its net sales increased 13 percent, to $175.1 million from $154.7 million, and it order backlog increased 18 percent, to $435 million, compared with the first quarter of last year.
However, expenses also increased, and the company was hit by a $2 million loss due to unfavorable currency exchange rates and a $3 million increase in interest expenses.
Along with the Connexion by Boeing contract, Flight Structures figured into B/E’s other big win for the quarter, corporate officials said.
Last month, B/E was selected to provide the interiors for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co.’s proposed new Russian regional jet. The company said the two deals represent between $150 million and $200 million worth of work over several years, beginning in 2005.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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